Meditation: the dangers.

I was recently subjected to several chest x-rays, which elicited gasps of incredulity from those who interpret such things. Apparently, my lungs are extraordinarily long, reaching all the way down to my diaphragm, which is more than a little unusual. The right lung, at first, was collapsed to around the size of an orange, which was far from good, although it soon resumed its oversized - or rather over-long - proportions, after a tedious and painful operation.

My past history of intense and prolonged deep-breathing, as part of do-or-die meditation, seems to have radically enlarged the organs, far beyond the reasonable. This, I can only surmise, is a rather questionable practice, since one starts out with only so much material, and like an inflated balloon, it becomes thinner and less substantial, the more it is inflated, requiring only a prick to produce disaster.

To this point, I would have wholeheartedly recommended deep meditation, to one and all, as beneficial in any number of ways. But in the light of recent experience, am more inclined to urge caution when subjecting one's lungs to long-term over-inflation, and to sustaining of that over-inflated state in pursuit of the lengthiest exhale possible.

In other words: don't try this at home. Unless you are capable of exercising restraint; something I historically have trouble with.

Now that I seem to have permanently damaged my lungs, would I do it differently, had I the opportunity to go back in time for another shot? Probably not. I rarely do anything by halves. The esoteric benefits far outweigh the damage done, if you discount death as being a bad thing. But since nobody else is me, I deliver this caution, to advise other would-be Godlike-beings of the unexpected dangers that might lie ahead.

Live long and know little. Or burn like an arc-light, and go out like one.

Well the physiology of your method of meditation must be quite different to mine. I find I begin with a relaxed, somewhat deep (though not excessively so) breathing, which becomes increasingly shallow as I enter into a meditative state. After about half-an-hour I reach a stage where it feels like I am barely breathing at all.

I've read a little about breath meditation and the cautions warned were of the dangers of what was called kumbhaka, keeping the breath in, as it can have questionable effects when done without the proper method and preparations. But it did not mention lung damage. I've never seen this mentioned, I did not know.

But if the person does not do it too much there is no such effect, right?

It's only uncomfortable, or any effort at all, in the beginning. As the lungs increase in volume, all is easy, and beneath conscious awareness. The benefit - to me - of such deep breathing was to escape the fluctuations in respiratory control that initially sabotaged deep relaxation. Both in and out, were totally smooth, after a while. Soon control can be dispensed with, completely: it happens by itself. I would softly chant 'Om' at 440 Hz. The more breath there is, the less disruption to continuity. I can attest the technique can work, spectacularly, although as I have noted, not without its possible dangers.